So you're a Sabres player, you step onto the HSBC arena ice in the first half of the season and there's a passivity in the air--an energy-level at the arena that was moderate at best and often times bordering on anemic.
Charting the Sabres woes at home can be traced to a litany of transgressions over the past few seasons that became all too common-place. From lack of leadership, to an absence of that Buffalo "lunch-bucket" mentality, to an unearned nonchalance bordering on hubris, the Sabres displayed an inconsistency that left the fan-base unsure of just what to expect from the Sabres on any given night.
What were the fans were about to watch? Not a team, per-se, but a group of players who's fragility and stubborn individuality would often leave the home crowd disappointed, as witnessed by an 6-3 thumping by the NY Rangers in the home opener this season and subsequent 0-4-1 home mark for the month of October.
That sinking feeling would turn to dread as the Sabres lost two more home games before defeating the Washington Capitals on November 13th.
Who could blame the fan-base for being skeptical after starting out 0-6-1 before that win? They'd seen this movie before and didn't like it. Worse yet, it was being played with, basically, the same group of players that had missed the playoffs two consecutive years before being bounced in the first round last year as the "favorite."
If the Buffalo Sabres wanted a rollicking HSBC arena for their home games, they would need to earn it.
Ryan Miller yesterday almost pleaded for fan support yesterday, "we need the crowd behind us, even when we're not playing our best we appreciate some support. You can't always go into the locker room feeling boos, we need some help, we need some support, we need everybody in this city behind us to do this the right way, that's just how it goes."
During the first half of the season, that quote would've come off as whiny and borderline laughable. Even in the context of the Sabres second-half playoff march it wasn't really necessary.
The fans know what's going on. They can differentiate between a group of players skating on the ice and National Hockey League Team that, as Lindy Ruff mentioned the other day, is "in the business of winning."
The fan-base didn't blow the roof off of HSBC in their playoff-clinching OT win vs. Philadelphia because of some "rah-rah" quote from a team leader. The fans blew the roof off because they actually believe in this team.
Buffalo sports fans have seen enough crap over the decades to know a phony when they see one and what they saw in the first-half of the season was phony. Sorry.
This (second-half) Sabres team is not the same team, though. They've earned the fans support and the fans have reciprocated by making HSBC a rollicking place once again.
The fans are all-in because this Sabres team showed that they're all-in.
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